Requiescat: Gary Gygax - 1938-2008
Posted March 5th, 2008 by Howard Tayler
Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons passed away on Tuesday, March 4th. CNN has this listed under “cnn.com/technology” which perhaps illustrates the enormous impact this man had on the lives of the people currently on this planet’s cutting edge.
If you’re a computer programmer, or if you work in just about any other highly technical field, the odds are pretty good that you’ve played Dungeons & Dragons. It’s likely, in fact, that your brush with it was during your formative years, and that you (like me) count those experiences among the ones that most shaped your imagination.
CNN’s article was kind of dry. If you want a good tribute, check out Rich Burlew’s illustrated tribute over at Order of the Stick, and the gorgeous single-panel nod over at Penny Arcade.
As for me… I believe that Gary has gone to a place where his imagination can be writ large, and where mere dice and tables can’t describe the outcomes. That God who gave us all life, and who invites us to choose wisely as we write the stories of our lives must certainly smile when a universe-builder like Gary finally comes home. He’s probably got pencils and paper spread out already.
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March 5th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Man, it’s impossible to think of my life without Gary’s influence. Though I never met him, you can see the influence he had in my sculpting. Rest in peace Gary.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Very well put, howard. Very well put. I am still in my formative years, being Gary’s son’s Alex’s age, and My mother still tells me stories of a GenCon years ago when Gary and his wife went out to eat, leaving Alex in their hotel room, where everybody in my mom’s group was gaming. Alex looked around and asked everyone if anybody had an Unearthed Arcana (this is during the height of 2nd ed). That’s probably my second favorite story, short of having read a copy of Saga of Old City, the first Greyhawk book.
RIP the greatest gamer who ever lived. An era has truly passed.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I like how you’ve postulated what it might be like for Gary when he returns home. Personally, I’m picturing him sitting down with Tolkien and having many long in depth discussion.
One showed us a fantasy world, and the other let us go live there for a time.
Oh what a boring childhood it would have been without this man. RIP indeed.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I first met D and D as a mature adult at a time when I was doing rather badly. It helped me a lot to realise how much fun there was still around.
It is a pity he failed his saving throw but I am sure he is enjoying his new home and still working on new ideas and thoughts.
Rest in peace Gary.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:43 am
While I never was into role-playing myself, my son was, and I used Gary Gygax’s books on Game Mastery as reference material for a computer adventure game I wrote in college.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I’ve enjoyed DnD for many years now, Gygax will be missed.
I doubt anyone could of forseen the changes that the game that he helped create would bring.
PS: Howard, your CNN link points to cool mini or not.com
March 5th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Link fixed.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
There’s not much that I can say that hasn’t already been said. He created a hobby that has grown well beyond his wildest expectations, and his legacy to the world is immeasurably great. Directly or indirectly, he helped to shape the minds of a generation of geeks, challenging them to use their imaginations and that carried them into a myriad of fantastic realms. He will be sorely missed.
For what it’s worth, however, I have this link to pass along:
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4378&mforum=trolllordgames
An e-mail address has been created to send sympathies to Gary’s wife, Gail. They were (and rightly so) afraid that Gary’s normal e-mail account might get clogged with letters of sympathy.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
My best times during high school were escaping into D&D with friends. I don’t play it anymore, but I certainly do feel like I owe him a large portion of my survival of my teens.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Sic transit gloria mundi …
March 5th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I haven’t played D&D in a while, but it will never be the same knowing that GG is dead.
Ona
March 5th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Another tribute here:
http://www.gucomics.com/comic/?cdate=20080305
Not as … interactive, but touching.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Man, weekly D&D games were what got me started as a writer. At first I had to create a living breathing character out of this pile of numbers. Ten minutes later I had to create a different one (freaking 1d4 hitpoints). Ages (and about 15 levels) later our DM moved so my cleric retired to build his own shrine. Then I had to learn plot, balance, intrigue, and so on all over again. I last saw our heroes at level 22, three (intermittent) years after I started running it. Three novel length stories and several short stories have come about since then, plus a freaking mountain of fan fiction under various pseudonyms.
Maybe one day I’ll publish something professionally.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
We will now have 1d6 moments of silence.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I like to think He’s up there helping explain exactly how Grapple Rules work now… :)
March 5th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Here’s another tribute over at Weregeek:
http://www.weregeek.com/2008/03/05/
March 6th, 2008 at 1:10 am
It’s strange to think he’s gone, if only bodily.
Here at germany his creation is fighting a deadly battle with DSA (a german fantasy RPG which came out just after DnD and which raised me to be what I am today), and it’s not quite sure which rules they use for that, but it’s likely that DSA wouldn’t have existed if it hadn’t been for DnD setting an example.
And the many roleplaying worlds and systems which sprung to existence after DnD.
I owe many thanks to Gary Gygax, though I only begun playing DnD as one of my rounds about a year before his death.
He was one of the creators of our hobby, and I believe that he not only made our world more fun, but also made it a better place.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:15 am
I am quite startled by how much his death affected me. I haven’t had much response to most of the death I have seen in my life, celebrities, heroes, and family alike.
Gary’s death though, makes me sadder than I would have imagined.
I would really like to say something witty or to make a comment that would date me as the rpg’er from way back that I am.
I can’t though, I am just very sad. A bit too sad to be able to do anything other than just be sad.
I think I failed my save versus grief.
The only other time I felt this bad was when Jim Henson died. I think the fact that the father of Muppets and and the father of Role Playing are the ones that affected me that way says something about me. And I think I like what it says.
Goodbye Gary. Say hi to Jim for me.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:17 am
here’s another ‘tribute’ that’s actually being worked into thet storyline:
http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp03042008.shtml
Gary will be missed by anyone whose live was touched by him, even those who never realized it before I posted the obit on an ooc board… *shakes head*
March 6th, 2008 at 11:00 am
If people are interested, Mr. Gygax posted regularly to EnWorld (http://www.enworld.org), a D&D message board, under the handle “Col_Pladoh”. There are extensive Q&A threads there which he posted to. I had always wanted to ask him a question, but I held off, since I couldn’t think of a really good one that was worth asking. “But I’ll post one someday,” I thought.
And now I can’t.
Goodbye, Gary.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I feel sad.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
“I can react 12 different ways to this news, but I just don’t know how to decide.”
March 6th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
It’s close to 30 years since I’ve played an RPG but that escape valve kept me mostly sane at a very dark time of my life.
Thanks, Gary. The world is a darker place without you but it’s a brighter and better place for having been graced by your wit and genius.
D.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Your post reminds me of Tolkien’s comments in both the story Leaf by Niggle and the essay On Fairy-Stories.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:08 am
And another tribute, I’m pretty sure.
http://xkcd.com/393/
thomas
March 8th, 2008 at 1:27 am
[hands xenolith a d12]
:)
March 8th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
[hands xenolith a handkerchief]
March 10th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Later I asked the organiser who had done best. “Well,” he said, “we had a group of blokes, very anonymous. Army chaps. Based at Hereford … they arrived, all rather small, all rather wiry, all rather silent. In they went. Ten minutes later they were out again. All the monsters were dead and nobody had known they were in there until they were on top of them.”
If Gary Gygax’s legacy is good enough for the SAS …
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/exit-the-dragon-master-793150.html
March 10th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Oh, man… LARPing with the SAS?
I’ll be standing waaay over here ——————>
March 11th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
As if you needed a reason to despise Slate.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Dev Dot Nul: It appears as tho’ folks are giving this person the
“bullet-and-burn” he warrants, if in fact he was being serious. (And
considering _Slu^Hate_ contains a link to _The Onion_ on its site,
one wonders how seriously *anything* it says can be taken…. >:) )
As for LARPing with The Boys From Hereford — *how* many US
aircraft carriers have SCA branches onboard? (I like to think that
at some point, the following dialogue occurred in the Kremlin:
“And this concludes our plan to capture an American aircraft carrier
by boarding. Questions?”
“Yes, Comrade — what do you make of *these* pictures?”
[long pause]
“Well, so much for *that* idea….”)
March 12th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Erik Sofge seems to think all D&D PCs are Belkar Bitterleaf.